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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, it has been more than 5 months since the President submitted a domestic supplemental appropriations request to Congress. And, among other things, it called for funding recovery efforts in communities across the country struck by disasters, including Lahaina Maui.

Every one of these affected communities in Florida, in California, in Vermont, in Mississippi, in Alabama, in Arkansas, in Alaska, in South Dakota, in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee need help. Each one of them is in the middle of a long and difficult process of rebuilding and getting back on its feet.

Recovering from a disaster--whether natural or manmade--it is hard, it is time-intensive, and it is incredibly expensive; surveying the damage in the immediate hours and days following the event; undertaking the complex and often dangerous process of debris removal; rebuilding homes and roads and schools and other essential infrastructure that were destroyed; providing financial assistance to people, families, and small business owners who lost their jobs and livelihoods overnight. It takes months and years and tremendous effort from thousands of people to return these communities to anything close to normal.

Today, another community is, unfortunately, confronting the colossal task of rebuilding--this time in Baltimore in the wake of the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Our hearts go out to the families of the six men who were lost that day. They were fathers; they were husbands; they were brothers; immigrants who worked day and night to provide for their families. And their losses break our collective hearts.

As Baltimore recovers, we stand ready to support all of the communities and businesses that relied on that bridge and the Port of Baltimore every day to get around and move goods through. And as the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, I am committed to doing everything I can to help pass the necessary funding to rebuild.

As we do that, we also have a responsibility to support every other community that has been devastated by a disaster because we are all in this together. No State or county--big or small, red or blue, wealthy or not--can shoulder the burden alone.

When a disaster is so big, so catastrophic for any one State or locality to handle, it falls on the Federal Government to step up and help. It is central to the promise of the Federal Government. We can argue about the size and the scope of the Federal Government all we like--which programs to fund, what levels to fund them at--but even the most libertarian among us can agree that helping our fellow Americans when they are in crisis, when they have lost everything, when they are desperate for support--helping them is patriotic and essential to our roles in the Congress. It is why funding disaster recovery has historically been bipartisan--because people on both sides of the aisle have recognized, rightly, that disasters do not discriminate between red and blue and purple areas. Accidents don't pick and choose their victims. Every community that has had the misfortune of being struck by a disaster needs and deserves help.

Maui is just one example of what these communities are facing. Eight months on from the devastating fires, the needs remain enormous. Thousands of people are still living out of hotels and vacation rentals, unable to rebuild their lives. Roads and water systems have yet to be repaired. Small businesses and their employees continue to struggle without tourism.

For Lahaina to recover, thousands of homes will need be to be rebuilt. Critical infrastructure will need to be restored. Businesses will need to get up and running again. So Congress needs to step up and help. That includes providing funding for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery--or CDBG-DR--Program, as the supplemental request calls for. CDBG-DR funding has long been a lifeline for families and small businesses recovering after disasters. Maui and many other communities nationwide are waiting on this aid.

It has been nearly 6 months since the President called on Congress to help communities recover from disasters. We have waited a long time, and we can't wait much longer. The disasters keep piling up and, with them, the urgent needs of the survivors. People need help.

We need to pass this supplemental and make sure all the survivors are getting the relief they need. This is not each against all; we are truly all in this together. Every community that has been hurt by a natural disaster deserves help, and Congress must provide it.

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